EconomicsandFinanceSocietyScreeningof EquityToCelebrateWomen’sHistoryMonth

Julia Ciampa

Staff Writer

The Economics and Finance Society gathered to watch a screening of the movie Equity to celebrate Women’s History Month on Tuesday, March 21.

Equity follows the story of an intelligent woman named Naomi Bishop who is an investment banker in New York City and works within Silicon Valley. Especially in the field of finance, Naomi deals with the hardships of being one of the few women on Wall Street, who are extremely successful.

Lynn Martin ‘98 is an MC alumnus and the current president of The New York Stock Exchange. Natalia Diaz Villatoro, president of the Economics and Finance Society, expressed feeling inspired to see a woman hold such a high position within the business world.

“The whole time I was thinking about an MC alumnus we met [Martin] who is a president of The New York Stock Exchange. I mean, that’s one of the highest positions you can hold, It’s just amazing that not only is a woman holding such a vital position in Wall Street, but she’s a Jasper as well.”

Diaz Villatoro said that there has been an increase in women breaking past stereotypes within corporate America The film helps exemplify what it is like to be a woman trying to reach the American Dream.

“Recently, there are definitely more women in corporate America shattering the glass ceiling and fighting back against gender stereotypes or discrimination,” Diaz Villatoro said. “It was so exciting to see a woman running a top business in the finance world, on her own, with no additional help from a man. This film serves as a true example of the ‘American Dream’, a dream which all finance majors can only wish to see come true, especially as a woman.”

Michael Omidvari, a senior finance major, said the film gave an insight into the finance world.

“Although the film was centered around a woman in finance, it also provides insight into the finance world on its own,” said Omidvari.

Michael Noonan, the chief financial officer of the economics and finance society, believes that Equity properly celebrates Women’s History Month because most pop-culture finance content is male-dominant.

“Very popular and entertaining movies like Wolf of Wall Street and The Big Short lack female representation, and Equity changes this. In the spirit of Economics and Finance, as well as Women’s History Month, we wanted to give our club members access to a different story geared toward women who want to pursue a career in finance,” explained Noonan.

Diaz Villatoro also expressed that the MC investment club allows for exposure but that the film allowed for there to be a behind-the-scenes look into what it is like to be in a professional financial setting for potential future careers.

“We have the investment club at MC. We do some research on companies’ stocks and make our own evaluations in the Bloomberg terminal, but it was just like a whole other perspective that we saw through this film,” explained Diaz Villatoro. “We saw a small short clip of everyone on the trading floor, you hear the language being used. It’s a whole other perspective that we get to see in the film that we don’t see until we go off into our careers.”